Commission takes up public park fee discussion

LODI - Mothers pushing baby strollers while incorporating full-body fitness routines are a common site in Lodi's Legion park a couple mornings every week.

Keith Reid

LODI - Mothers pushing baby strollers while incorporating full-body fitness routines are a common site in Lodi's Legion park a couple mornings every week.

It's called Baby Bootcamp, a small business that makes use of public park space to provide a niche in the personal trainer market, franchise owner Leigh Hobson said.

"We do it at the park because we are moms with babies, and it's a safe place," Hobson said.

City parks and recreation officials say, however, that an increasing number of fitness-based businesses using parks as business space is placing a burden on taxpayer funded facilities.

The Lodi Recreation Commission will discuss on Tuesday the possibility of charging a permit fee of fitness businesses like Baby Bootcamp and others that are charging clients for their classes in city parks. Other cities, like Long Beach and Austin, Texas, have implemented permit fees, Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services Director Jeff Hood said.

"Businesses are expanding their operations into taxpayer funded facilities," Hood said, adding that a permit system would not differ much from how the city regulates how taco trucks and other salespeople do business in public places.

"It's worth a discussion about whether these businesses should be able to operate without some type of compensation to taxpayers," Hood said, adding that one fitness group at DeBenedetti Park often leaves a mess.

"There's debris from hay bales and they flip tractor tires over at the park," Hood said, as part of the exercise program.

Permits in other cities start at around $50 per session. Hobson said the permit process, if reasonable, would be an adjustment she could make. Baby Bootcamp clients pay $49 a month, according to the company's website.

Hobson said her group, which is usually not bigger than 10, is as courteous as possible on the park pathways, and alter their paths when a day-care group convenes at the park during school breaks.

"If it's a fee within reason, I wouldn't necessarily have a problem with (a permit fee)," Hobson said.

Another small Lodi business, Now & Zen Yoga, offers a unique class of yoga on stand-up paddle boards at Lodi Lake. Owner Deb Marweg said a $50 fee would be significant for her to pay. The company has eight paddle boards, so classes never have more than eight people involved at once.

She said her clients already pay fees to park at Lodi Lake, and Now and Zen has insurance and a traditional business permit with the city.

"It's not a private lake," she said. "If it is too expensive, it'll force us to find a new place (to launch) and get over to the river" where Lodi does not have jurisdiction.

Hood said Tuesday's Recreation Commission meeting is a preliminary discussion. No fee will be approved on Tuesday.